Ten Days on the Island will be cancelled in 2012, due to terms and conditions for a five-day Australian Opera tour organised by the Sydney-based Australian Council for the Arts. The AO will be performing two nights in Hobart and one in Launceston, with the program not being decided until late 2011 by managers and executives in Sydney. Public relations for the AO point out that this tour, the biggest in the State’s history, will ‘interpolate Tasmania on the world’s cultural cosmos’, and draw hundreds of thousands of cultural ‘guests’ to the Isle.

Furthermore, in the fortnight before or in the week after the AO’s tour, no local TV or radio station may broadcast any opera-related material, nor can local artistic, cultural or entertainment activities can take place. This means, for example, that no cinemas in Hobart and Launceston, or within an 80km radius of each city, can operate during the exclusion period.

Moreover, sales of opera and opera-related DVDs, books and other material are banned, except by the Arts Council’s Sydney-based ‘preferred commercial partners’; advertising and commercial logos which conflict with AO’s ‘sponsorship obligations’ throughout each city must be covered or removed at local government expense; and Hobart’s Theatre Royal and Launceston’s Princess Theatre must give undertakings, including payment of a ‘technical subvention’, to make a range of improvements, the details of which however remain ‘confidential’.

To ensure the ‘professional integrity’ of this one-off cultural gift to the State, all local theatre staff will be replaced by AO’s Sydney-trained professionals, with local talent invited to shadow them during the operation, provided that they pay a non-refundable AO ‘essential learnings fee’ twelve months beforehand. In the interests of public safety, DIER must devote special traffic lanes and provide police escorts for AO officials, artistes and VIP guests, with the AO having the right to close any road or restrict public access to roads at any time before, during and after each performance.

Lastly, all income from this wonderfully generous venture will go to the AO.

Bad dream?

Not, it seems, if Australia ‘succeeds’ in being lumbered with a soccer World Cup tournament, as defined by FIFA terms and conditions.

The Herald Sun provided a link to the Host City Draft Contract available on the Internet which outlines dozens of onerous conditions soccer’s ruling body FIFA demands of World Cup host cities. Under the draft agreement, FIFA would demand that Melbourne:–

CLOSE any road or restrict public access to roads at any time during the event;

TURN the city into a cultural desert by banning substantial cultural events – such as music concerts - on the days before or after matches.

The Herald Sun asked soccer’s local governing body, Football Federation Australia, for an official copy of the Host City Agreement that Melbourne will be locked in to if Australia’s bid succeeds.

But [FFA] public affairs chief Bonita Mersiades refused to release the document.
Asked why it should stay secret - given the significant impact it could have of the daily lives of Melburnians - she said FIFA had stipulated it not be released. But the Herald Sun found copies of the Host City Agreement freely available on the websites of other bid cities

So that’s it then: we just sit back and wait for ‘0,000,000s of cashed-up foreigners pour in and spend up big, putting Oz ‘in the world’s spotlight’, just as the F1 Grand Prix does for Melbourne. (Yeah.)

No, it isn’t - it could be a case of “We have a problem”, or in current jargon, an ‘issue’.

Shape.

A recent media report had FIFA demanding that the MCG have temporary stands put in to reduce the playing surface to a rectangular shape and bring the spectators closer to the on-field action. Reasonable, you might say.

But at $450,000,000 of taxpayer moneys? And expelling for a year the tenant which brings in the most income per annum?

There are reports, not fully documented, largely because of FIFA’s commercial-in-confidence rules, that the only venues which will be approved will be soccer-sized rectangular arenas; this was not a problem when the US, another non-soccer nation, hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup, because (a) American Football is played in those sorts of stadiums, and (b) it was not held in their NFL season.

Which reduces our list of suitable venues to two: Brisbane’s Lang Park and Sydney’s SFS; four if existing movable stands at Melbourne’s Docklands and Sydney’s Homebush make them compliant. (A Sydney report quoted $150,000,000 to make Homebush fully compliant; and any quote for a NSW project doubles before the ink has dried.)

Which means building or enlarging up to ten or twelve rectangular 40,000-seaters (with one at 80,000 and another at 60,000) so that lots of foreigners can spend a month in Oz playing and watching a sport we treat very unseriously. (And politely not mentioning the unsavoury reputation of soccer hooligans overseas.)

How unseriously?

6169, that’s how unseriously. That is the average crowd-per-game of our soccer A-League’s season 2009/10 Round 18. (That’s about 49,000 empty seats at the Docklands, and 47,000 at Lang Park. And 93,000 at the MCG.)

As a huge soccer fan from Tasmania I’ll be happy to watch the 2022 world cup where ever it is held.

I’m used to watching it only on tv, so I’m hardly going to care whether it’s held in Australia or not.

Unfortunately Australia has hardly any rectangle stadiums of any size. Regardless of Lenoard’s observations on the A League crowds, FIFA really do need a lot of large stadiums, and the the fans really do travel from all over the world.

South Africa is expecting 50,000 England fans alone. Comparing the World Cup with a F1 car race is ridiculous. You would never see 50,000 Schumacker fanboys travelling the world to see him race 20 times a year.

The World Cup is once every four years and that’s why it’s an absolutely bankable winner. Whether it’s worth converting all of Australia’s ovals to proper stadiums, I don’t think so.

So let’s allow a country with proper stadiums (or silly enough to spends hundred of millions building them) to host the World Cup.

Germany did it in 06, France in 98, and the US in 94 - but they’re all far bigger countries than Australia so it’s right that they should have the facilities and wealth to hold such a fabulous showcase.

By the way, I love AFL too. If you don’t like soccer, I’m sorry for you.

I don’t like swimming and would prefer a single dollar of public funds had never been spent on it. But what can I do? Actually I don’t like hockey either, and they’ve got a really expensive pitch in Hobart! And I don’t like rugby at all. I find badminton really boring, but that doesn’t get much money anyway. And I hate car racing.

So really, it’s soccer, AFL and maybe a little bit of cricket if it’s evenly balanced. As for the rest, please don’t spend my money on it.

Posted by Bazza on 16/12/09 at 10:49 AM

This is really disappointing. 10 days on the Island is a great event so I’m not happy at all. Why can’t Oz Opera come earlier or later?

Posted by Maddie on 16/12/09 at 04:57 PM

The “Aussie Codes” are in a panic. If it wasn’t for the influx of Pacific Islanders and New Zealanders then the Rugby codes (League and Union) would not have many juniors. They are all playing soccer. The AFL won’t allow Tassie a team for the same reason. We are their juniors along with NT and regional Vic, WA and SA.

The “kids” are now around 26 years old and younger and most play soccer. The media reporters are 55 years and older. News Ltd just pulled out as controlling interest of Rugby League. The media and the advertising dollar will dictate the future and not some sentimental pensioner. The working class has the spending power and that rising class plays soccer.

My son and his friends travel internationally to watch these competitions. Australia’s xenophobic contraction is so typical of our ills.

Posted by Mark on 16/12/09 at 07:42 PM

Personally, the only thing I like about soccer is the hooligans. Bring on the brawls!

Posted by Justa Bloke on 16/12/09 at 08:51 PM

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